PROGRESS IS BEING MADE ???

While making my weekly visit to the 3 parks of Wildomar one can see some progress being made. The part-time parks employee has been more visible this week walking the parks removing trash strewn about and picking up after the scofflaws that continue to allow their animals to deposit waste along the way. That and the Swisher Sweet containers scattered about.

Madness for sure.

With the help of an industrious volunteer the city employee has resuscitated 8 of the 9 field drains by performing a atherectomy and removing essentially 100% occlusion before the rainy season.

Before Cleaning

After removing 10 pounds of dirt and trash.

One field drain still needs to be opened, but the city employee needs to borrow tools from the cemetery district to perform this task. The part-time worker has been observed hosing off gazebos and picnic tables without the benefit of a automatic shut off nozzle, he doesn’t even have one of those. Hopefully before the rainy season starts the city will pop for the necessary fossil filters that should have been replace long ago and the parking lot drains along with the “bioswale” drains can be looked after as specified by the BMP in the WQMP.
Speaking of bioswales.

What a bioswale should look like

Wildomar’s idea of a bioswale

Parking lot drain in serious need of attention. May take heavy equipment to straighten out top so filter can be removed

An item specified in the WQMP for Marna O’Brien Park and touted all over Riverside County but rarely implemented.

This one is located in an HOA where a former Planning Director is on the Board.

Typical Wildomar Drain, no markings whatsoever

Another item specified in the WQMP is the posting of Santa Margarita and Santa Ana Watershed Information on a bulletin board.

Not much information here

BMP in WQMP
(That translates into Best Management Practice in Water Quality Management Plan for which the County of Riverside escaped thousand of dollars in fines from the Regional Water Board by implementing, almost a year after completing the park. This document was supposed to be completed before construction even got started.)

The city employee has also been attempting to maintain the previously ignored Tot-Lots for which the citizens still await a Certified Playground Safety Inspection which has not been done to my knowledge. Despite the lack of inspection there is progress being made in this area. One can’t help notice the newly added surfacing material that has made the Tot-Lots look complete rather than a giant void as before.

Seriously lacking surfacing material to cushion a fall. Also uneven.

This lack of material led to numerous exposed hazards.

Today it is much better with an even surface and hazards properly covered

Numerous other hazards were taken care of when additional surfacing material (Engineered Wood Fiber) was added

Two week ago at the beginning of August. 113 days after the parks opened to the public

What it looks today after bitching to the city council

The beginning of August. Just waiting to remove a toe

What it looks like today.

Some hardware has been replaced where previously missing, thanks to a generous donation from Coast Recreation in Costa Mesa when their representative happened to be in the area and stopped by.

What it looked like the beginning of August. Missing several pieces of hardware

Two weeks later with hardware replaced.

City employee is waiting on a gel material to see if these windows to the world can be cleaned up, if not lets hope the city will replace them.

Much still needs to be done in the way of a written maintenance schedule for which the city will more than likely have to pay for a replacement, seems Riverside County EDA claims to have turn over these schedules along with post construction drawings of the parks to the City of Wildomar when the city took the parks from the county in July of 2009 , the city claims not to have these schedule and drawings.
It is most important from a risk management point of view that a written check sheet be used to document the maintenance ensuring that no step is left out and the process is done on a regular basis and documented. This type of check-off sheet/log has not been observed when the maintenance process is being performed.

We should a similar type form, checked off, signed an kept in a book for each park in the maintenance room.

The city also needs to pony up the money to replace certain elements of the Tot-Lots, like the viewing windows and bubble that are so worn one thinks there vision is going south, or the one that’s been broken for eons. The talking tube at Regency Heritage that is missing along with fixing the periscope and mirrors and chimes at Windsong.

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2 thoughts on “PROGRESS IS BEING MADE ???”

Great pics… all of us want our parks to be as safe as can be. I can still remember when my son was about 18 months old and the local playground toys had multiple rusted through spots (San Clemente). I remember thinking that the city was lining themselves up for a lawsuit. The thing I never did was tell the city, though I know now that is the first thing to do. We citizens need to be extra sets of eyes so that we can keep things safe. Not for any ‘gotcha’ moments (as seems to be a pastime for many in Wildomar) simply because that’s what a community does.

Thank you Joseph
You are correct in that citizens need to be the extra eyes especially in a small town like Wildomar. Sure I complain, some think way too much, but if I don’t say something who going to. I would rather chastise the city council and staff for their lack of attention hoping to get them on-board before an incident leads to a contentious lawsuit. As to the lawsuit filed by others, sometimes its the only way.